Local trading was light and otherwise inactive as financial markets in the US were closed for a public holiday Monday. The PX-50 index gained 0.54%, to 467.70 points, in a modest volume of USD 12.97 mil. Ceska sporitelna led domestic stocks, up 3.28% in a good volume of more than 660,000 shares. It may be that investors are beginning to shift their interest from telcos to domestic banks that are either to be privatized (KB) or that are showing significant turnarounds, as is the case of Ceska sporitelna. We believe there might be a further upside in Ceska sporitelna, the only concern is the stock’s fluctuating liquidity. For today, we feel European as well as Czech markets might open somewhat stronger; nonetheless, we do not expect any major upward trend here in Prague. The local market will likely again focus on the banks.
(Milan Procházka)